hydroponic

Two months after an advisory board voted to deny organic certification to aeroponic agriculture, the USDA said aeroponic crops remain eligible for the organic seal. "USDA will consider this [advisory] recommendation; aeroponics remains allowed during this review," said the Agricultural Marketing Service in a bulletin to organic growers.

At its three-day spring meeting in Denver, the National Organic Standards Board delayed, until fall at the earliest, a decision on whether hydroponic crops should be classified as organic production, said The Packer magazine. As a result, "hydroponics will be considered organic for a while longer," as they have for 15 years.

Two small startups "with a starkly different vision of how to grow produce year-around, under uniquely Alaskan conditions," hope to reap profits, along with vegetables, in a state where the food chain is long and prices are high, says the New York Times.

A team of engineers is testing the practicality of growing food crops in small, inflatable greenhouses in the ocean.

The Department of Agriculture set a May 8 deadline for nominations to a task force that will "examine hydroponic and aquaponic practices and their alignment with the USDA organic regulations" and the underlying law.